Antonio Reynoso is seeking another term as borough president, bringing a pro-housing, pro-education agenda with him.
During his first term, Reynoso, an unapologetic progressive, diverted all of his $45 million fiscal year 2023 capital budget on maternal health care. He also focused on levelling out inequalities in the borough by coming up with the Comprehensive Plan For Brooklyn, a multi-year approach that tackles housing, education and health issues.
“We've converted our community room where [Former Borough President Eric Adams] traditionally threw parties, into a work authorization center for migrants,” he added.
Reynoso said he has made an effort to diversify Brooklyn’s community board membership, which tends to be comprised of older retirees. “Maybe we want a 30-year-old renter that rides a bike.” He said he has leveraged his appointment power to put more “pro-housing, pro-transportation” people onto community boards.
The former Council Member is very conscious of gentrification, especially in places like Bushwick and Crown Heights. Since each Uniform Land Use Rezoning Process in Brooklyn requires his signature to move forward, he tries to incorporate residents' concerns as much as he can before signing off on a project that will change the makeup of an area.
“The people don't see the macro picture and that's why the Comprehensive Plan [for Brooklyn] is so valuable,” Reynoso added. “Because when you hear about a development happening in your community, it's very personal, very localized and you don't understand the impact of that housing development on the rest of the borough or how it affects gentrification.”
One housing victory was recently made in Windsor Terrace, Reynoso said, where he worked alongside Council Member Shahana Hanif to add additional affordable housing units to a large development there. He said residents who spoke loudly against certain aspects of the project were key.
“Local organizing is deeply important and we wanna hear from the voices of our community,” Reynoso said. “There's no doubt in my mind that throughout this entire process Council Member Hanif and I were going to get more affordable housing and we wanted to be very careful about any reduction in height taking away from the number of units that were built.”
Brooklyn’s current pace of adding 10,000 new units a year doesn’t satisfy him, however. The Borough President said Brooklyn should be adding 50,000 apartment units a year to drive housing supply up to force rents to come down.
If he is reelected, Reynoso said education policies will be his primary focus. Reynoso has an autistic child who does not live near a District 75 school (which are reserved for students with learning disabilities). “We're going to see what we can do to help improve the physical infrastructure and the opportunities for D75 students,” he said.
Another focal issue is food insecurity. “We're working on food insecurity in East New York, which is still a big problem,” Reynoso said. By partnering with local farms, he is hoping “we can assist in giving people the food they need.”
Public safety is another priority. Reynoso believes good housing, schools, parks, transportation and businesses create a low crime rate.
In 2020, Reynoso said “we have wrongly been told our whole lives that police keep us safe,” a statement he still stands behind.
“These kids don't want to go home to a house that has mold, is infested with rats or roaches, they would rather stay in the streets in an environment that's more appealing," Reynoso said of children living in run down public housing units.
Reynoso, who first saw the appeal of public service while mentoring young students during his college years at Le Moyne College and after President Barack Obama was elected, also said he is gearing up to protect Brooklyn from the Trump Administration.
“It doesn't matter if it's a recession, COVID, or 9/11—we always bounce back, we bounce back stronger, we bounce back faster,” he said.
